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Play and game in Duel and Strategy

Conference Paper · January 2011

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Sluchin Benny Mikhail Malt

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 Play and game in Duel and Strategy
Benny Sluchin
Ircam, Ensemble Intercontemporain, France
benny.sluchin@ircam.fr

Mikhail Malt
Ircam, MINT – Sorbonne Paris IV, France
mikhail.malt@ircam.fr

The mathematical Game Theory is the theoretical background to three of Iannis Xenakis’
compositions: Duel (1959), Stratégie (1962) and Linaia Agon (1972). The first two works
oppose two orchestras, or more precise two conductors, in a musical combat, they differ in the
size of the orchestras (Duel for two fifty-six musician’s orchestra, Stratégie for eighty-two) and
the tactics (musical material) the opponents are aloud to use. Naturally, the payoff matrices,
which direct the opponent’s choice, are different in both works. Linaia Agon, for horn,
trombone and tuba, is a later work, combining completely determined parts with improvised
combats. Having already treated this chamber piece [Sluchin 2005], this article will
concentrate on the earlier works.

The research contained in this proposal is musicological, historical and practical.

1. Musicological
An extensive study of the Composer’s writings in relationship of Game Theory is the start
point. The main source: Musiques Formelles [Xenakis 1981] and the third chapter “Stratégie
Musicale” is carefully studied, in the light of period articles and books that had oriented
Xenakis to use this branch of Mathematics in his compositions. The original material conserved
in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, is a new source of information for these neglected
part of his output.

2. Historical
Both pieces had a short experience in performances. Duel was not performed before 1971,
and Stratégie gave rise to a musical scandal in the concert in Paris that followed the Venice
Biennale concert with Maderna and Simonovich [Matossian 1990]. From the other part, the
composer was not entirely satisfied with these concerts. The reception to this works from both
the public and the orchestral musicians show, that the controversy towards indeterminate
works, played an important part with this works.

3. Practical
The musical combats follow the rules given by the composer. A row or a column is a tactic, and
correspond to a musical part in the score. The conductors choose each their move, and the
numerical ‘value’ is determined by the payoff matrices entry. The aim of the game is to win a
maximum amount of points. It is extremely hard, to follow the opponents choices, to make his
own move watching the matrices’ values, and to transmit the players the tactic chosen to be
played. Xenakis gave a detailed description for an installation, to help the communication
between the conductor and his orchestra [Xenakis 1959]. Studying in detail his description, we
propose a CAP (Computer Aided Performance) [Sluchin&Malt 2010] Interface to inhance a
spontaneous execution in concert, completely based on IX conception of the work.
 References
Matossian, Nouritza. Iannis Xenakis. London: Kahn & Averill, 1990.

Sluchin, Benny and Malt, Mikhail. “Interpretation and Computer Assistance in John Cage’s Concert for
Piano and Orchestra (1957-58).” 7th Sound and Music Computing Conference Proceedings, Barcelona,
Spain, July 21-24 (2010). http://smcnetwork.org/files/proceedings/2010/58.pdf.
Sluchin, Benny. “Linaia Agon, towards an interpretation based on the theory.” Proceedings of Iannis
Xenakis International Symposium, Athens, Greece (2005): 299–311.
Xenakis, Iannis. Duel. Paris: Salabert, 1959.

Xenakis, Iannis. Musiques Formelles. Paris: Stock Musique,1981.

Benny Sluchin studied music at the conservatory of his native city, Tel Aviv, and in the Academy of
Music in Jerusalem. Simultaneously, he studied mathematics and philosophy at the university of Tel Aviv
and received his "Master of Science". Since 1976, he has been a member of the Ensemble
InterContemporain (directed by Pierre Boulez), playing the most representative music of the present
century, and participating as soloist in premières of solo works by Iannis Xenakis, Vinko Globokar, Gérard
Grisey, Pascal Dusapin, Elliott Carter, Luca Francesconi, Marco Stroppa, and others. Apart from this, he
participates in various research projects in brass acoustics at IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et de
Coordination Acoustique/Musique), Paris. He finished his doctoral thesis and is the author of many
articles and pedagogical books. The SACEM prize for the pedagogical realisation was given in 1996 to his
Introduction to contemportary trombone techniques and Singing and playing simultaneously on brass
instruments (Éditions Musicales Européennes). Benny Sluchin has taken part in many recordings and
completed “Le Trombone Contemporain”, Musidisc , “French Bel canto Trombone” , Musidisc and Xenakis
- Keren (Erato).

Mikhail Malt started out his musical career in Brazil as both flutist and orchestral conductor, having
conducting youth orchestras for ten years. He is researcher at MINT-OMF Sorbonne Paris IV («
Musicologie, informatique et nouvelles technologies » Team, as branch of the “Observatoire Musical
Français”). At Ircam, he is “Computer Music Designer”, and on charge of teaching Computer Assisted
composition and musical synthesis, within the Educational Department. He is currently pursuing his
composition and research activities in the fields of artificial life models, musical representation and
compositional epistemology.

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